Family Day Open House

February 19, 2018 @ 11:00 am - 2:00 pm

The 2018 Ontario Family Day is being observed with an open house at the headquarters of the 250-member Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen’s Association (BPSA).

We are running an interactive program for you and your kids at our clubhouse west of Wiarton on Monday February 19, 2018 from 11am–2pm.

BPSA, best known for stocking fish for the sports fishery, will present a number of family activities on that day.

There will be hatchery tours. See thousands of yearling and baby rainbow and brown trout. Since the sixties, BPSA members have stocked more than 4-million salmon and trout in Grey-Bruce waters. We may be best known for our fish stocking but there’s much more.

We will spotlight our youth and adult archery and gun club education programs. We will host target shooting demonstrations at our range under the supervision of specially trained range safety officers. And there will be free refreshments for all.

On Family Day club archery program chairs Paul and Donna Maginnis and their volunteer team will be busy helping youngsters try out what may become the kid’s favourite sport. Archery has become extremely popular in recent years and the BPSA Archery Club is a hit with all age groups. For winter, archery shoots are indoors and youth and adults shoot at the same time. Basic instruction is provided and SAFETY is our number one concern. Our safety rules are strict and will remain our number one priority as we work to attract even more people to this growing sport.

We will also display our latest “BOOT SCRUBBERS”. We are working with other community groups to install 100 boot-scrubber units at trail and park entrances to prevent the spread of the seeds of invasive species.

We are also proud to announce that our 56 year-old conservation club has set dates our major 2018 events.

The annual BPSA Annual Club Awards event is set for 5pm on Saturday March 24, 2018.

Our annual general meeting where a new executive is elected by our membership runs Thursday March 29 at 7:30pm.

On Thursday April 26th at 7:30pm we feature an information session on Wilderness First Aid. Join us at the clubhouse. Guests are welcome.

At 9 am on Saturday May 5th BPSA members will take part in a special tree planting event on club property and at Vanishing Creek.

June 9th from 9-11am at our hatchery pond, we host our annual BPSA KidsFishing Derby. This is always a well-attended event. There is no charge to take part. Kids 12 and under are invited. Hot dogs, pop and ice cream are provided compliments of BPSA. There will be prizes for the three biggest fish.

Saturday July 14 from 4-7pm we host our largest fund raiser of the year. It’s the annual BPSA Beef and Pork Barbecue a “summer tradition” in Grey Bruce. Several hundred people usually show up for this always tasty meal.

Every year our members help raise and tear down the huge tent which hosts the largest event of the year in Grey-Bruce, the Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular Fishing Derby. Tent-raising is set for 8am on Wednesday August 22nd. Tear down is Monday September 3rd.

Our annual BPSA Community Living Fishing Day is on Saturday September 15th from 2-5pm at our hatchery pond.

This Bruce Peninsula club constantly celebrates the Canadian heritage pursuits of fishing and hunting, and there will be lots of talk about these outdoor activities at the February 19th event. Two-hundred families joined us on this special day last year. They took in our Open House and it was indeed, a FULL house.

BPSA President Jim Martell says “our open house is a great way to celebrate and promote fishing and hunting, other outdoors activities and of course conservation, which we are all about”.

Our annual Family Day open house is a valuable learning experience for young people and their parents, who often end up as members of this respected volunteer conservation organization.

Our top priority is to engage children in outdoors recreation and conservation.

The 200-member BRUCE PENINSULA SPORTSMEN’S ASSOCIATION was established in 1962 to preserve and protect fish and wildlife and to encourage conservation. Our conservation efforts also include emergency deer feeding, trail maintenance, shore and stream rehabilitation, stream bank stabilization, species re-introduction, our Boot Scrubber project and much more. Tourism officials estimate that over the years, our club’s efforts, by beefing up sports fish populations, have pumped $18-million into our regional economy.

Our club operates the longest running volunteer fish-stocking program in Ontario. We look back proudly to a time when a small group of sports-minded people began meeting, then decided to stock fish. Today we have a state-of-the art hatchery and clubhouse.

It is well documented that anglers and hunters are the best conservationists. We will continue to work hard to attract new members and to forge ahead with the conservation work that began years ago. We strongly support our Family Day and Kids Fishing events. Our young people are being taught the joys of outdoors recreation. At the same time they are being encouraged to carry on the good conservation work started by our club’s pioneers.